f!6 IMPROVEMENT BREAKING. 



jade and knock up. We believe the figure offered to the reader's view, to be a true 

 fac simile, of the old, or Sjuiiiis't Pointer, and even his spirit as it emanates from 

 his countenance, seems to have been caught and marked with truth and facility by 

 the artist. His heavy head, ear, brow, and chops, seem emblematical of his general 

 coarseness and heaviness. His crest and shoukler are high and thick, the latter 

 beino* surmounted by a considerable protuberance, which occasions a sinking in the 

 spine adjoining, followed by an elevation in the loins, similar to, that in the Grey- 

 hound. The lower limbs have great bone, and the feet are large. 



\\ hen, or however, we may have obtained the Spanish Pointer, his improvement 

 in speed and real utility in the field, by the means chiefly of the Fox Hound cross, 

 is no matter of obscurity r or very distant retrospection. Much the greater part of 

 this, has occurred within living memory, as our Grandfathers and some of our 

 fathers, have shot to antiquated and heavy Pointers. The destination of this Species 

 is to the purpose of shooting the Partridge, Snipe, and Moor Game, in the open 

 Country, and the Pheasant and Woodcock in Coverts, inclosed and secluded situa- 

 tions. Spaniels, as has been before observed, have much fewer engagements in 

 modern, than in the shooting of former times. A dog however, trained to the duty 

 of finding and bringing in dead or wounded game, is absolutely requisite, to spare 

 the weary steps of the Gunner or his Servant. In the absence of the spaniel, this 

 duty necessarily devolves on the Pointer, to which in consequence, must be given a 

 tender mouth and great heed in the affair, that the feather of the game be as little 

 broken and defaced as possible, and the flesh as little mangled. We are aware that, 

 some good Sportsmen have deeriexl the practice of trusting this part of sporting 

 business to the dog, whether the Spaniel or Pointer, on the alledged extreme diffi- 

 culty, or rather impossibility, of giving to any dog* a mouth sufficiently tender, or 

 impressing him with sufficient habits of carefulness. We can only say, on the grounds 

 above stated, it is a plan which well deserves trial. 



Breaking the Pointer, from the considerable variety of inculcations necessary to 

 complete him, as staunch to * bird, dog, and gun,' is a task perhaps of greater 

 difficulty, than the similar one with any other species of the Sporting Dog. This 

 arising as well from the Pointer being of a nature somewhat riotous, and not equally 

 devoted to his labours, with the spaniel, as from the variety and difficulty, and to 

 many tediousness, of his duties. For although he may naturally point, or more 

 properly hunt, pause and listen, he is yet often impatient at having his natural pro- 

 perty subjected to toilsome rules, and whenever his instruction in those is inculcated 

 with severity and much correction, he will miss no fair opportunity of playing the 

 truant and making his escape. Training the Pointer then, is not a task of so easy 

 a description ns has been pretended, to wit, that, " a tolerable well bred Pointer 

 puppy, may have the groundwork of all his future perfections theoretically 

 implanted, in the parlour or kitchen of the dwelling house, before ho once makes 

 his appearance in the field." He may, to be sure, at three or four months old, stand 



